Psalm 40

1 I waited patiently for the Lord;  he inclined to me and heard my cry.2 He brought me out of the roaring pit, out of the mire and clay;  he set my feet upon a rock and made my footing sure.3 He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;  many shall see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.4 Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,  who does not turn to the proud that follow a lie.5 Great are the wonders you have done, O Lord my God. How great your designs for us!  There is none that can be compared with you.6 If I were to proclaim them and tell of them  they would be more than I am able to express.7 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire  but my ears you have opened;8 Burnt offering and sacrifice for sin you have not required;  then said I: Lo, I come.9 In the scroll of the book it is written of me that I should do your will, O my God;  I delight to do it: your law is within my heart.10 I have declared your righteousness in the great congregation;  behold, I did not restrain my lips, and that, O Lord, you know.11 Your righteousness I have not hidden in my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;  I have not concealed your loving-kindness and truth from the great congregation.12 Do not withhold your compassion from me, O Lord;  let your love and your faithfulness always preserve me,13 For innumerable troubles have come about me; my sins have overtaken me so that I cannot look up;  they are more in number than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me.14 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;  O Lord, make haste to help me.15 Let them be ashamed and altogether dismayed who seek after my life to destroy it;  let them be driven back and put to shame who wish me evil.16 Let those who heap insults upon me  be desolate because of their shame.17 Let all who seek you rejoice in you and be glad;  let those who love your salvation say always, The Lord is great.18 Though I am poor and needy,  the Lord cares for me.19 You are my helper and my deliverer;  O my God, make no delay.

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Isaiah 7: 1-9

Isaiah Reassures King Ahaz

7In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem, but could not mount an attack against it.
2When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz* and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub,* at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fullers Field,
4and say to him, Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smouldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.
5Because Aramwith Ephraim and the son of Remaliahhas plotted evil against you, saying,
6Let us go up against Judah and cut off Jerusalem* and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel king in it;
7therefore thus says the Lord God:It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.
8 For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin.

(Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, no longer a people.)
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all.

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Matthew 23: 13-26

13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.*15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell* as yourselves.

16 Woe to you, blind guides, who say, Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.
17You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred?
18And you say, Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound by the oath.
19How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
20So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it;
21and whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in it;
22and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.

23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practised without neglecting the others.
24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup,* so that the outside also may become clean.